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Rogue
:For a description of the role of Rogues within the lore of Warcraft, see Rogue lore. For related articles, see Category:Rogues. The Rogue class is the premiere melee DPS dealer, approached in damage only by well-geared Fury Warriors and Feral Druids. They have access to a wide range of special abilities, which mostly depend upon energy. The mantra of the Rogue is "fastest to kill, fastest to die." Unlike Hunters and Mages who have the ability to deal damage from distance, Rogues must be in close, which often subjects them to tank-like damage input when caught out of stealth. Rogues rely on agility, but should also aim for gear with additional stamina. At the later levels, some Rogues opt to use Attack Power. Rogues can only wear leather or cloth armor, cannot wear shields, and can only wield 1-handed weapons (daggers, swords, maces and fist weapons) and ranged weapons. At level 10, they can dual wield two one-handed weapons. At level 20, they gain access to Poisons through a quest. This class is best suited for players who like to creep up on unsuspecting targets and if problems arise, can vanish from sight. Races The Rogue class can be played by the following races: Alliance * Dwarves * Gnomes * Humans * Night Elves Horde * Orcs * Undead * Trolls * Blood Elves All races can play the Rogue with equal efficiency, but like any class in World of Warcraft, we should take a deeper look into the Racial Traits and how they affect the gameplay of a Rogue. * The Undead have the racials Will of the Forsaken and Cannibalize. Will of the Forsaken allows an Undead Rogue to get rid of fear, sleep and charm spells, and is a huge benefit in PvP when fighting Priests, Warriors or Warlocks. Cannibalize can be used on humanoid or undead corpses to regain health, which helps to minimize downtime without wasting food, bandages or potions. * Night Elves have increased dodge (an extra +1%), increased stealth (equal to a +1,67 with 5/5 Master of Deception) and are tied with Gnomes for the highest base agility in the game. Furthermore, Night Elves possess Shadowmeld, an ability which functions like a weaker, stationary stealth. Shadowmeld adds a new dimension in tactics for night elf rogues. * Gnomes have the racial escape artist, which allows a gnome to escape from a root/snare once every couple of minutes without the use of Vanish. Gnome's small stature also can make them difficult to hit when combined with the jumping and spinning seen in PvP. They are also tied with Night Elves for the highest base agility in the game. * Dwarves have the racials Find Treasure and Stoneform. Find Treasure puts chests, clams, footlockers, etc. on the minimap when active. Since Find Treasure reveals footlockers, it makes the Rogue's Pick Lock skill much easier to level. Find Treasure does not stack with other tracking abilities such as find minerals, and other forms of tracking provided by gathering professions. Find Treasure offers no significant advantage in PvP or PvE. Stoneform, an activated ability, clears poison, disease, and bleed effects(also makes you immune to those effects while Stoneform is active) while also slightly increasing armor for 5 seconds. Stoneform can be situationally useful against any class that uses poisons or bleed effects, such as hunters, rogues, and warriors. * Humans have a 5% increase in spirit, as well as a 10% bonus to faction reputation gain. Humans also receive a +5 bonus to their sword and mace skills, giving them a higher chance to hit. Finally, Humans have Perception, an activated racial that greatly increases their stealth detection for 20 seconds. * Trolls have the racials Regeneration and Berserking. Regeneration allows a Troll to maintain 10% of their health regeneration while in combat, increasing survivability and minimizing downtime. Berserking is an activated racial the increases attack speed relative to the amount of health remaining. Berserking, combined with Slice and Dice, can increase a Rogue's attack speed by 45% to 55% (depending on rank). This greatly increases a Troll Rogue's DPS and poison applications. Berserking requires 10 Energy to activate. Trolls also have a +5 bonus weapon skill to thrown and bow skills. * Orcs have the racials Blood Fury and Hardiness. Blood Fury increases an orc Rogue's DPS while reducing their healing received by 50%. Hardiness increases the Rogue's stun resistance by 15%. * Blood Elves have the complementary racials Mana Tap and Arcane Torrent. Mana Tap is used to burn an enemy's mana. Arcane Torrent, on the other hand, is a dual use racial. It provides a 2 second, area of effect silence as well as refilling up to 30 energy. These two abilities allow a Blood Elf to be more effective against enemy casters. It also allows them to recover from energy-expensive finishes very quickly. Blood Elves also have a passive +5 to arcane, nature, fire, frost, and shadow resistance. Race choices for rogues are extremely flexible, as all races have good abilities to offer for rogues. Starting Attributes Weapons The Rogue class has a few different weapon choices available. Weapon skills you don't start with can be trained in the appropriate capital cities. Ask a guard for the location of the weapon master and each weapon master will be able to tell you not only what he can teach you but where you need to go to learn the other skills. Weapon Choices Are: *Dagger *Thrown *Swords (One Handed) *Bows *Crossbows *Guns *Maces (One Handed) *Fist Weapons Using different weapons will probably affect the way you apply your talent points with this class. Some abilities, such as Ambush, Backstab, and Mutilate can only be used with daggers in the Rogue's main hand (Mutilate requires a dagger in both). If you are looking for a melee damage dealer that fights alongside a tank but is not the tank, then a sword, mace, or fist weapon is probably the weapon for you. If you are looking for a stealthy class that can do amazing damage with opening and finishing abilities then dagger will probably interest you most. Dagger Rogues are generally built more for burst damage and favored in PvP, sword, mace, and fist weapon Rogues are usually built for higher sustained damage which is usually favored for PvE. Many Rogue abilities are instant attacks based on the weapon damage of your main hand weapon, so it is desirable to use a main hand weapon with high damage on targets where your energy will be plentiful. Typically slower weapons offer higher damage ranges which increase the effectiveness of your instant abilities. They are often more effective than quick attacking weapons, due to their very low damage range. As of patch 1.8, weapon speed no longer affects the Attack Power damage bonus given to most instant attacks. They instead use a set multiplier based on the weapon type. Instant attacks using a dagger now use the set number of 1.7, while one-handed weapons such as swords and maces use the set number of 2.4. There is an exception to this rule in that Hemorrhage and Ghostly Strike are not normalized (affected by this change) in which case very slow weapons will have greater overall impact. The normalized damage for a weapon used for instant attacks can be calculated as follows: normalized_damage = base_weapon_damage + (X * Attack Power / 14) where X = 1.7 for daggers, 2.4 for swords, maces, and fist weapons, or the listed weapon speed if using Hemorrhage or Ghostly Strike. Although weapon speed for normalized attacks does not contribute to the bonus damage from Attack Power, slower weapons have higher base damage and thus cause more damage overall. Having some form of weapon swap macro can be very useful for a Rogue. Sinister Strikes are substantially more effective with slow non-dagger weapons. With a weapon swapping macro, it's possible to use a dagger to ambush before switching to a slower main hand weapon for regular combat. Note that swapping weapons triggers the global cooldown, but if timed correctly (i.e. while energy is recharging) this can be a very effective technique. Weapons held in the off hand have only two instant attacks, Shiv and the off-hand component of Mutilate. Otherwise their damage contribution is reasonably straightforward. Off-hand attacks suffer a damage penalty. In order to apply poisons at a higher rate, a fast off-hand weapon is generally desired. Most players choose to use the same type of off-hand as the main hand (in order to benefit from weapon specialization talents), but some prefer to use the fastest dagger available in order to quickly apply poisons and interrupt spellcasters. Faster weapons are also favored for the combat talent Combat Potency due to the chance to regain 15 energy on a succesful off hand hit. Notable weapons Swords * - level 24 (19 required) Bind on Pickup superior sword from Edwin VanCleef in the Deadmines. * - level 30 Bind on Pickup quest reward from in Blackfathom Deeps. * - Quest reward from the Ras Frostwhisper quest line in Scholomance * - level 44 (33 required) from Horde quest Into the Scarlet Monastery from Varimathras in the Undercity. * - Quest reward from the Maraudon quest where you need to kill Princess * - Fast 1.50 speed off-hand sword with nice instant damage CoH attack; goes great with a Thrash Blade in the early 50s. Random world drop. * - level 44 (37 required) from quest Bring the End from Andrew Brownell in the Undercity. * - level 56 (51 required) Bind on Equip epic sword. Random world drop. * - level 63 (58 required) Bind on Pickup superior sword from Rend Blackhand of Blackrock Spire. * - level 63 (58 required) Bind on Pickup superior sword from Rend Blackhand of Blackrock Spire. * - Quest reward from Silithus * - level 66 (60 required) Bind on Pickup epic sword (offhand) from Bloodlord Mandokir in the Zul'Gurub instance. * - level 70 (60 required) Bind on Pickup epic sword from Garr in the Molten Core instance. * - level 74 (60 required) Bind on Pickup epic sword from Onyxia from Onyxia's Lair. * - level 75 (60 required) BoP epic sword from Broodlord Lashslayer from Blackwing Lair. * - level 77 (60 required) Bind on Pickup epic sword from Chromaggus in Blackwing Lair. * - level 77 (60 required) Bind on Pickup epic sword from Fankriss the Unyielding in Temple of Ahn'Qiraj. * - level 115 (70 required) Bind on Pickup rare drop from Aeonus in the Black Morass, one of the best off-hand swords at lvl 70 outside of the arena rewards, at least until... * - level 141 (70 required) Bind on Pickup epic drop from Mother Shahraz in the Black Temple. * - level 156 (70 required) Only "Take-home" legendary BC weapons in the game. Drop from Illidan Stormrage in the Black Temple. Daggers * - level 21, Quest reward from , a Horde quest in Ghostlands. * - level 23, drops off of Old Serra'kis in Blackfathom Deeps. * - level 24, drops off of Archmage Arugal in Shadowfang Keep in Silverpine Forest. * - level 26 (21 required), drops off of , a rare monster in central Westfall. * - level 30, drops off of Agathelos the Raging in Razorfen Kraul. * - level 44, Bind on Pickup reward dagger from , an Alliance quest in Southshore. * - level 44 (39 required) Bind on Pickup, drops off , the final boss in Razorfen Downs. * - level 47 (42 required) Bind on Equip, highest damage rare dagger until Barman Shanker * level 55 (50 required), World Drop * - level 55 (50 required) Bind on Pickup, drops off in the Blackrock Depths instance. * - level 68 (60 required) Bind on Pickup epic dagger from Hakkar the Soulflayer in the Zul'Gurub instance. * - level 69 (60 required) Bind on Pickup epic dagger from Garr in the Molten Core instance. * - level 77 (60 required) Bind on Pickup epic dagger from Ragnaros in the Molten Core instance. * - level 74 (60 required) Bind on Pickup epic dagger from Vaelastrasz the Corrupt in the Blackwing Lair instance. * - level 70 (60 required) Bind on Pickup epic dagger from Majordomo Executus in the Molten Core instance. * - level 125 (70 required) Bind on Pickup epic dagger from Prince Malchezaar in Karazhan. Maces * - level 65 (60 required) Bind on Pickup, requires revered with Alterac Valley (Alliance only) * - level 62 (57 required) Bind on Equip superior mace. Random world drop. * - level 66 (60 required) Bind on Pickup epic mace from Kazzak in Blasted Lands. * - level 72 (60 required) Bind on Pickup epic mace from Ossirian the Unscarred in Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj. * - level 83 (60 required) Bind on Pickup epic mace. Has a small chance of dropping from the various trash mobs in Naxxramas. Fist Weapons * - level 65 (60 required) Bind on Pickup epic fist weapon from High Priest Thekal in Zul'Gurub. * - level 65 (60 required) Bind on Pickup epic fist weapon from High Priestess Arlokk in Zul'Gurub. * - level 75 (60 required) Bind on Pickup epic fist weapon from Firemaw in Blackwing Lair. * - level 88 (60 required) Bind on Pickup epic fist weapon from Sapphiron in Naxxramas. Abilities This section provides a taste of the abilities of the Rogue. For more detail, see Detailed Rogue Abilities Stealth Rogues have the ability to stealth and become essentially invisible. If they are detected, they will become translucent, but still difficult to see. Staying behind your target at all times will maintain the lowest chance of being detected. You can make yourself harder to detect when stealthed through talents (Master of Deception), items (The Master's Treads, Darkmantle Boots, Whisperwalk Boots, Nightscape Boots, or Figurine - Black Pearl Panther), and with a stealth enchantment to one's cloak. Players and monsters that are above your level have a better chance of detecting you when stealthed. However, a player or monster of almost any level will see you if you walk close enough in front of them. Keep in mind, when a monster is almost near enough to detect you, it will make a noise (grunt, etc.) and look in your direction. As long as you don't get too much closer to the monster while it is facing you, it will not detect you, and will continue whatever it was doing after a few seconds. At level 22 you also gain the ability to cause a distraction (Distract) to force monsters to look in the direction you want them to, so you can sneak up with very little chance of being seen. Distract is sometimes resisted by enemy players and monsters, so be prepared. It is important to keep in mind that stealth detection is also important to Rogues, especially in PvP (Player vs Player) combat situations or when in areas where monsters are hidden by stealth (for instance, when scouting dungeons.) Stealth detection enhancements, like the Human racial Perception or items like The Night Watchman Rogue helm, give the Rogue an advantage when going up against other stealthed opponents. A good balance of stealth-enhancing and stealth-detecting skills/items/enchantments will make your life as a Rogue an easier and more effective one. A Rogue moves slower while in stealth depending on the rank of stealth skill. You can increase stealthed movement speed with talent points spent on fleet footed or camouflage - 3% per talent point, topping at 15%. You can also use Sprint while stealthed to increase your speed, not breaking your stealth. Any other items that increase your speed will break stealth upon use, but you can re-stealth or use the item prior to activating stealth. Note: Investing in speed increasing effects can be critical to a Rogue. The Minor Speed or Cat's Swiftness boot enchantments and the Fleet Footed talent (enchants and the talent do not stack) offer an extra 8% overall movement speed which works both in and out of stealth, and can be critical when trying to get in range of an opponent or when attempting to escape. Note that with the release of the Burning Crusade expansion there are now new talents that were added to the Rogue talent trees addressing issues of range. Any Rogue with 40 talent points in the Subtlety tree can use the Shadowstep skill at a range of 20 yards to instantly teleport behind a targeted opponent and gain a buff that allows a garrote, ambush or backstab attack to have a 20% damage increase; very effective against kiters (like Hunters or spell-casters). Poisons The Poisons skill is a secondary skill, similar to Cooking or First Aid, that is available only to Rogues. The Poisons skill allows the Rogue to brew poisons, which can then be applied to their weapons. Poisons generally either cause damage to the target (either instantly or as damage over time) or cause other effects (slowing the target, removing the effectiveness of healing on the target, etc.). Different weapons can have different poisons applied, and faster weapons cause the poison to proc more often. Poisons are a temporary weapon buff, and as such do not stack with other enhancements such as sharpening stones or buffs from shaman totems. All poisons have a timer, which generally lasts 30 minutes. As of patch_2.1.0 a Rogue's poisons no longer have charges. The poison timer is displayed on the weapons properties when you mouse over the weapon. As of patch 1.10 applying poison will not break stealth or shadowmeld; previously to this, applying poisons would break these states. As of Patch 2.0.1, poisons remain on weapons through zoning between continents or into instances. A variety of talents in the Assassination skill tree enhance the use of poisons. Wearing 3 or more pieces of the Bloodfang Armor set increases the chance to apply poisons by 5%. Lockpicking Rogues have the ability to obtain the important skill Lockpicking. This ability allows them to open locked chests, lockboxes, and doors, depending on the Rogue's skill in lockpicking and the level of the locked object (note that blacksmiths can create keys to open locked chests and engineers can manufacture explosive charges that can open locked doors, in the case that a skilled Rogue is unavailable.) Lockboxes can be pickpocketed from mobs or found as loot and are essential to Rogues trying to level their lockpicking skill -- their color (grey - red) represents the skill necessary to open them (red means the Rogue's lockpicking skill is too low to open the object and must increase his/her skill level before attempting again.) Your lockpicking increases at the same rate as weapon skills (5 * Level) to a maximum skill of 350 at level 70. Some high-level dungeons (like the Arcatraz in Tempest Keep or the Shattered Halls in Hellfire Citadel) can be opened by a Rogue with a skill level of 350 in lockpicking. This can be a real time-saver for a group since the alternative to picking the locks to these dungeons is to complete several long quest chains resulting in a key reward. Stuns * Cheap Shot Stuns a target for 4 seconds. This is a very useful opener that requires stealth and usually allows the Rogue to get 1 or 2 instant attacks off in addition to auto-attacks before an opponent can recover. * Kidney Shot Kidney shot is an excellent finishing move. It can keep a PvP opponent stunned long enough for you to kill them (especially if you master stun-locking). But in PvE it's also a great ability to help keep your group mates alive or to interrupt a spell being cast. * Gouge Gouge is not a stun, but is a very important skill that incapacitates your target. This is used frequently to stall an opponent allowing you time to regenerate energy and get behind your opponent to allow a backstab. This move turns off auto-attack when used. Unlike stuns, any damage caused afterwards breaks the gouge, since it is considered an incapacitating effect. * Mace Specialization. Placing talent points in mace specialization under the combat tree gives your maces a chance on hit to stun your opponent for 3 seconds. With one point in this talent you have a 6% chance of stunning your target, more points can bring this up to 10%. Mace stuns are not subject to Diminishing Returns like most stuns. Please note that diminishing returns apply to all effects that cause players to lose control of their character (stun, incapacitate, disorient, etc.). Passive Threat Reduction All Rogues generate reduced threat, compared to most classes. While attacks from most classes generate 1.0x threat per damage, Rogues generate 0.71x threat per damage. Prior to v1.12, Rogue's threat reduction was 0.8x, but was additive with other threat modifiers. The reduction was increased because threat modifiers are now multiplicative. Talents * Note: Rogue Talents have been reviewed and revamped as of Patch 1.12. Rogue Talents are split into 3 categories: * Assassination-Tree * Combat-Tree * Subtlety-Tree Talent builders can be found at Official Blizzard site, WorldofWar.se, WoW Vault, ThottBot, Merciless and Wowhead. See the Rogue talents page for further details. See the common Rogue Builds for some ideas to building your Talent Tree. Suggested Professions Suggested professions for Rogues are the pairing of Leatherworking and Skinning this is very helpful at lower levels to make leather armor that is more useful than most drops you get at that level. Plus, at the low levels most of the animals you kill are able to be skinned which means you will level up in both quickly. A specialty in Elemental Leatherworking is also suggested since it is the best specialization for Melee fighters. Another pair of professions to consider is the combination of Herbalism and Alchemy. The Alchemy profession allows the Rogue to manufacture powerful potions, like agility enhancement and healing for example, that can come in handy in a variety of situations. A third alternative is Blacksmithing with the swordsmithing specialization. This opens up for crafting the Fireguard. This weapons can further be upgraded to Blazeguard, and finally Blazefury. Or you could go the alternate route of mace specialization and get the Drakefist Hammer. This weapon upgrades to Dragonmaw, and then finally to Dragonstrike. Useful Add-ons This section lists some of the more helpful mods specifically for the Rogue class. ; EnergyWatch V2 : Displays a progress bar that fills, empties, and refills in time with your energy recharge tick. This can be extremely useful for timing that Cheapshot or Ambush so you tick immediately and have extra energy for a Gouge etc. ; PoisonMaster : Takes the math out of those Shady Dealer visits by allowing you to preselect the number and types of poisons you want to carry, and then automating the materials purchasing / creation of those poisons. ; SpellAlert : Notifies the player when someone begins to cast a spell. This is great since it lets you know when to kick, blind or stun the opponent; quite handy if you prefer not to be polymorphed. NOTE: Buggy and no longer supported by author. ; WeaponQuickSwap : Useful for the Rogue who likes to keep something other than a dagger equipped, but doesn't want to lose the use of dagger-based abilities. These and more Rogue-add-ons can be downloaded from Curse Gaming. End-Game Expectations Your main priority in raiding is melee DPS. You will need to use your aggro reducing abilities (such as Feint and Vanish) effectively. Unfortunately, Rogues often will not receive heals, so expect to use your bandages, potions, and other consumables for healing. Healthstones are ideal as you can carry a few (different ranks, and/or the improved versions) so long as the Warlocks are willing to conjure them. It is essential that Rogues attain the highest level of First Aid (300 at level 60 and 375 at level 70) for raiding. In many instances, most notably, Molten Core, most mobs are completely resistant to poison effects; therefore, a prepared Rogue will have Sharpening Stones or Elemental Sharpening Stones on hand to increase their damage. In Blackwing Lair, however, the mobs are not invulnerable to all Poisons. Unfortunately, most of your stunning abilities are not useful in end-game situations since many mobs are immune to stuns. In some fights however, certain strategies will require stuns (Razorgore, Majordomo, Battleguard Sartura). Many fights, if not all, require Rogues. Notable among them are Vaelastrasz and Broodlord Lashlayer. In the Vaelastrasz fight, Rogue DPS is key to ending the fight before the Essence of the Red buff wears off. Rogues will not get Burning Adrenaline unless they pull aggro, so their DPS will be constant throughout the whole fight. In ranged DPS fights, such as Shazzrah in MC, the Rogue's job is usually contained to ranged DPS or bandaging other raid members. See Also * See Rogue Gear Guide for detailed information about choice of Rogue equipment. * See Starting a Rogue for some advice when starting out. * See Rogue Sets for discussion of set items for Rogues. * See Rogue Solo List for details how to do what Rogues do best, assassinate instance bosses and solo quests. * See Stealth Run for Solo or Duo-able dungeons. * See Stealth_Chests for soloable chests in instances. * See Flintlocke's Guide To Azeroth for a glimpse of what the world would be like if there were no Rogues. External links Rogue Leveling Guide - Helps new Rogues choose their talents at early levels. Encrypted Text - weekly rogue feature at WoW Insider Category:Classes Category:WoW Classes